The Patriot Act Is An Assault Not Only On the Constitution But On God

 David Alan Black 

All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level that even the most stupid of those toward whom it is directed will understand it.... Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.  Adolf Hitler

“Propaganda” is an interesting word. It includes connotations of deliberately distorting facts and appealing to the prejudices of an audience in order to win their support for an undeserving institution or cause.

As an example of this, consider John Ashcroft’s campaign to convince the American people that surrendering their God-given liberties for the sake of government-guaranteed “security” is in their best interest. The United States Justice Department functions with impunity, gradually curbing religious and other freedoms while imposing by force of law a totalitarian ideology on the populace. All this in the name of the Constitution, no less!

Once again, government has taken the place of God in our society. William Blackstone, who embodied the tenets of Judeo-Christian truth in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, confirmed that God is the source of all law, whether laws are found in the Scriptures or in nature. To Blackstone and the American Founding Fathers, the concepts of “right” and “freedom” were meaningless without their divine origin. Thus, the very word “rights” brought to mind the image of the divine Giver of all rights. Otherwise, Blackstone argued, rights would be the purely arbitrary decisions of men—as indeed they are today because the idea of divine law has been abandoned.

Statements by John Ashcroft and others in the administration illustrate the new view of the Constitution and the radical departure from the Framers’ intent. Today, the Constitution is no longer the unchanging bedrock of our society. Instead, it is whatever the judges say it is. This view of law is in dire contrast to the traditional American understanding of constitutionalism—that is, limited government under law.

It is this type of philosophy that has opened the door to the idea of the evolution of law and an evolving Constitution. What nobody in Washington seems to notice is that the actual structure of law, government, and other branches of the American political system are actually being destroyed. All of these sentiments find their logical and horrifying conclusion in the so-called Patriot Act, which legalizes the right of government to disregard the Bill of Rights—this in the same “justice system” that allows an individual to take the life of a defenseless infant!

My friends, we must realize that fundamental perceptions of normality are being so thoroughly undermined in America that it is becoming questionable whether a coherent social order can survive in the long run. What’s more, this unconstitutional assault on the rule of law is being supported by an American presidency that chooses to ignore the phenomenal risks that are being dismissed as weightless.

Many who voted for George W. Bush thought they were supporting a conservative politician. Yet those who surround the president today seem to think there’s no political profit in responding to the concerns of millions of Americans about their unalienable rights. Apparently Ashcroft & Co. think even less of the divine Giver of all rights.

September 18, 2003

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

Back to daveblackonline